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LONDON—New British Prime Minister Theresa May wasted no time Thursday ushering in a new era for Britain and putting her own stamp on the government as she jettisoned a number of top figures from her predecessor’s six-year run.

The mass firing of top lieutenants to David Cameron marked a more determined break in direction for May than many political observers had anticipated, or than May herself had advertised.

In this summer’s brief contest for the nation’s top job, she had campaigned as the continuity candidate — the one who would embrace Cameron’s legacy even as she took the country in the radically different direction that voters demanded when they endorsed an exit from the European Union in last month’s referendum.

But on her first full day on the job, she left little doubt that she wants her government to take a different course, with new personnel. At least a half-dozen top Cameron-era cabinet officials were left without jobs by the time she was finished beckoning lawmakers one-by-one to her new home on Downing St. so they could learn their fate.

“It tells us she’s her own woman,” said Tony Travers, a politics professor at the London School of Economics. “She’s trying to show us that she can think in a way that’s refreshing, that she will do what she wants and put her own stamp on government.”

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Travers said that May had an even more difficult task than most prime ministers, who have to form a cabinet that reflects geographical, gender and ethnic balance. May had the additional burden of trying to balance “remainers” and “leavers” as she attempts to heal the bitter divisions within the Conservative Party that came to the fore during last month’s vote.

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks to the media outside her official residence,10 Downing Street in London. May wanted Britain to stay in the European Union, but the government she unveiled Thursday leaves little doubt that she intends to take it out. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP)

May — who campaigned for “remain” — made good on an earlier vow to appoint prominent “leave” politicians to top posts.

Chief among them was the flamboyant and ever-undiplomatic Boris Johnson, former mayor of London, who was awarded the plum job of foreign secretary late Wednesday. The move spawned head-scratching worldwide, given his past critical comments about President Barack Obama, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and many others.

Other prominent pro-Brexit politicians were left on the sidelines. Michael Gove, the justice secretary who was seen as the intellectual architect of the Brexit campaign, was among those left out of May’s cabinet.

Gove had earned the tag of “Britain’s Brutus” after ambushing Johnson, his friend and fellow Brexiteer, and knocking him from the race for the country’s top job.

The firings weren’t limited to the “leave” side. George Osborne, a “remain” politician who had been the country’s top finance official and was long seen as Cameron’s preferred successor, was among those banished to the backbenches.

Cameron, Osborne and Gove had together been known as the “Notting Hill set,” a group of relatively young, Oxford-educated men who sought to modernize a party long known for its fustiness. May also studied at Oxford but was never considered part of that clubby grouping.

Other top officials who lost their jobs Thursday were education secretary Nicky Morgan, culture secretary John Whittingdale and Oliver Letwin, who was to have served as a point person in Brexit talks.

The thorough sweep came just a day after May curtsied before Queen Elizabeth II and became the country’s prime minister, ending a weeks-long vacuum at the top of the government that was triggered by the EU vote and Cameron’s subsequent resignation.

In her first speech as the country’s leader, May indicated she would chart a new course, emphasizing the need for social justice and saying she would govern on behalf of the poor, minorities, women and others who have traditionally not been given a strong voice in government.

In at least one early nod to that vision, she created a new post Thursday, one that combined the business and energy departments under one umbrella but also added a third mission: “industrial strategy.” The phrase is more associated with the active government intervention in the economy advocated by the Labour Party left than with the hands-off policies of the Tory right.

Personal rivalries may explain some of May’s personnel decisions. She and Gove, for instance, were famously at odds when they both served in Cameron’s cabinet.

But in some cases, the new prime minister was able to overlook old — and not-so-old — grudges. Just last week, for instance, her then-adversary for Britain’s top job, Andrea Leadsom, suggested to the Times of London that her own status as a mother would make her a better prime minister than the childless May.

Whatever offence May took, she overlooked it on Thursday, appointing Leadsom to be the new environment secretary.

May’s picks were praised by her fellow Conservatives, who have largely stopped attacking each other after months of intra-party skirmishing over Brexit. But not everyone was impressed; her pick for foreign secretary came in for particular scrutiny.

Yvette Cooper, a prominent Labour member of Parliament, called the selection of Johnson “a very, very unwise appointment” and suggested that the new prime minister plans to use him as a scapegoat if things go wrong with Brexit.

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